Connacht 28 – 15 Edinburgh

1 year ago

Connacht secured a bonus point win over Edinburgh at the Sportsground tonight thanks to tries from Niyi Adeolokun, Quinn Roux, Cian Kelleher and Peter Robb as well as eight points from the boot of Jack Carty.

After nine minutes and a Jason Tovey penalty to open the scoring for the visitors, the Connacht forwards earned a penalty on halfway from an Edinburgh scrum and were able to build the phases to send Adeolokun charging over the whitewash.

Carty made no mistake with the extras to make it 7-3, before adding the game’s second penalty inside the Edinburgh 22 moments later.

Second row Grant Gilchrist hit back for his side however in an end-to-end opening to the clash, after Tovey made a half break and set up his skipper to score his try.

Outhalf Tovey levelled the scores temporarily with the conversion, but that lasted all of two minutes as the visitors were penalised for coming in at the side and Carty struck his third kick from the tee through the posts.

Roux finally breached the visitors’ defence to go over in the right corner – although Carty missed his first attempt of the evening to make it 18-10 at the interval.

Half time: Connacht 18 – 10 Edinburgh

Pat Lam’s men came out flying after the interval, winning a penalty at the breakdown to kick to the Edinburgh 10-metre line, and Carty’s delightful one-handed offload saw Kelleher over for his first try for the province.

The visitors pushed hard for a way back into the contest, but once they finally forced their way into Connacht’s 22, a series of huge defensive tackles from the hosts forced the knock-on.

Connacht were able to stop a driving maul from Edinburgh in the 63rd minute, but ten minutes from time the Scots finally made all their pressure count.

Good handling from the Edinburgh backline bought wing Mike Allen the space out wide to run in, although crucially Tovey’s conversion from out wide hit the post to keep Connacht eight points clear.

But in the end that miss did not prove decisive as the hosts secured their try bonus point just three minutes later, centre Robb racing into the corner to take the final score to 28-15.